Highlights
- •The overall incidence of obesity in this group of young Latin-American children with a mean age of 48 months was 4.1%.
- •The prevalence of obesity duplicated in the 2 years between the two waves.
- •Higher consumption of ultra-processed food is favorable for obesity, although p-values did not reach statistical significance
Abstract
Purpose
We evaluated the potential associations between the consumption of ultra-processed
food (UPF) and the incidence of obesity among Uruguayan and Brazilian preschoolers.
Design and methods
We conducted a longitudinal analysis using data from preschool children from Uruguay
and Brazil. The “Health, child development and nutritional survey” (ENDIS) was conducted in Uruguay in 2013–2014 and 2015–2016. The Brazilian survey
(Pelotas 2015 Birth Cohort) has measures from 2017 and 2019. The main outcome measure
was obesity defined as body mass index (BMI) for age and sex ≥ +3 z-scores. The score
of UPF consumption was the main exposure measured. Multilevel crude and adjusted Poisson
regressions were performed to estimate risk ratios and the respective 95% Confidence
Intervals (95% CI).
Results
The overall incidence of obesity in this group of young Latin-American children with
a mean age of 48 months was 4.1%. We observed a relationship between UPF and obesity
with statistical significance (RR: 1.10 (95% CI, 1.02–1.18). Adjustment for weight
at birth, age, sex, breastfeeding, country, and time between waves resulted in a similar
relationship but lack of statistical significance.
Conclusions
Whilst in this study we did not find strong evidence of an association between the
incidence of obesity and the intake at baseline and currently of UPF, results suggest
that higher UPF consumption is more favorable than reduced consumption for the development
of obesity.
Practice implications: The present study reinforces the importance of nutrition education
and more effective public policies for promoting healthier food choices in early childhood.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 03, 2023
Accepted:
December 19,
2022
Received in revised form:
December 3,
2022
Received:
August 24,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
